UFC on Fuel TV 9 Notebook: Weight of a Name

By: Brian KnappApr 5, 2013

Ryan
Couture has won six of his first seven professional bouts. | Photo:
Ryan O’Leary/MMAViking.com

Randy
Couture has appeared in more
Ultimate Fighting Championship title bouts (15) than any other
fighter and remains one of only two men -- B.J. Penn is the
other -- to capture UFC gold in more than one weight class. These
are the considerable footsteps in which his eldest son must now
follow.

Ryan
Couture will make his Octagon debut in the
UFC on Fuel TV 9 co-main event on Saturday, as he locks horns
with “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9 winner Ross
Pearson at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm. The
30-year-old admits being the son of a living legend has its own
benefits and drawbacks.

“It’s opened a lot of doors,” Couture said
in an interview with Fighters Only. “It’s really the only
reason I am where I am. There’s a little bit of flipside to that
with the added expectation. People expect a lot of things out of me
that they wouldn’t ever think to expect out of someone else with
seven pro fights. It’s a double-sided thing, but the pros far
outweigh the cons. I’m happy with it. I wouldn’t change a
thing.”

Pearson will serve as a difficult first hurdle to scale. The
28-year-old
Alliance MMA representative has compiled a 6-3 record since
joining the UFC in 2009, including wins over Dennis
Siver, Aaron Riley
and Spencer
Fisher. Pearson last appeared at UFC on FX 6 in December, when
he stopped Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt George
Sotiropoulos on third-round punches at the Gold Coast
Convention and Exhibition Centre in Gold Coast, Queensland,
Australia.

“I figured they’d throw me someone tough,” Couture said. “I’d
rather fight someone who’s established and has a name. There’s
really no way for me to lose, as long as I go out and perform and
put up a good fight. Win or lose, I come out ahead. I like Ross a
lot. I’m a fan of his. If he was fighting anybody else, I’d be
cheering for him, but I’ve got to go out there and do my job and
try and take him out.

“I’m expecting an exciting fight,” he added. “I know Ross is going
to come forward and try and take my head off. I’ve got to be smart
and avoid his power and find my spot to take him down and choke him
out.”

In addition to the pressures associated with entering the UFC,
Couture has had to deal with the public feud between his father --
who severed ties with the promotion to join forces with rival
Bellator
MMA in February -- and UFC President Dana White. “The Natural”
will not be in his son’s corner in Sweden.

“I don’t really have a choice but to just roll with it,” Couture
said. “Him and Dana had a falling out. Sometimes that’s how it
goes. It sucks to not have him in my corner. I’m not happy about
it, but it’s not make or break. I’ve still got a great team of
coaches. I think I’ve got everything I need to win the fight.”

Though the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation has the final say
on cornermen, Couture indicated he would respect the UFC’s wishes
as it relates to his father.

“If I wanted to pick a fight, I could go over their head and go to
the commission and list him as a corner, and they probably couldn’t
stop him, short of having security remove him from the building on
fight night, but I don’t want to get on those terms and give them a
reason to be mad at me, too,” he said. “Right now, that dispute is
between dad and Dana, and that’s how it should stay. It’s got
nothing to do with me. I’ll go along with whatever the rules are as
stated to me. Hopefully, someday they’ll change their mind. If they
don’t, so be it.”

Swimming Lessons

File
Photo

Pickett hungers for UFC gold.

Brad
Pickett wants to be the first Englishman to win a UFC
championship, and the 34-year-old
American Top Team representative will start his latest climb
back towards title contention in a bantamweight showcase with the
talented but enigmatic Mike
Easton.

“Winning will get me closer,” Pickett told Sherdog.com. “I’ve been
there or thereabouts for so long now. I’d love to be the first
[British] guy to be able to do it.”

Easton provides his next challenge. The Alliance MMA export has won
eight of his past nine bouts, though he saw a career-best winning
streak snapped in a disappointing unanimous decision defeat to
Raphael
Assuncao at UFC on Fox 5 in December. Still, the 29-year-old
Easton has Pickett’s attention.

“He’s a very talented guy,” he said. “He’s very athletic. I just
feel like I’m going to be a little too much for him. I think I’ve
got more tools to win this fight than he has. I know I can knock
someone out, I know I can submit someone and I’m tough enough to go
to a decision.

“I want to see what he’s like when he gets into deep water,”
Pickett added. “I’m going to take him deep and see if he can
swim.”

This & That

A former Strikeforce
and Dream
champion, Gegard
Mousasi has delivered 26 of his 29 career finishes inside the
first round ... Pablo Garza
was a point guard on the men’s basketball team at Jamestown
College, an NAIA school in North Dakota ... Matt
Mitrione hails from Springfield, Ill., the same hometown as
Abraham Lincoln, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts and
musician Bobby McFerrin, a 10-time Grammy Award winner best known
for his 1988 hit “Don’t Worry Be Happy” ... Nearly half (11) of the
26 fighters booked to compete at UFC on Fuel TV 9 are former cast
members of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series: Tom Lawlor
(Season 8), Pearson (Season 9), Mitrione (Season 10), Garza (Season
12), Michael
Johnson (Season 12), Diego
Brandao (Season 14), Marcus
Brimage (Season 14), Akira
Corassani (Season 14), Ben Alloway
(“The Smashes”) Adam Cella
(Season 17) and Tor Troeng
(Season 17) ... Born on March 25, 1985, Besam
Yousef shares a birthday with NASCAR driver Danica Patrick,
legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell and James Lovell, the American
astronaut who commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970 ...
Undefeated former Ring of
Combat welterweight champion Ryan
LaFlare has finished all seven of his opponents, four by
knockout or technical knockout and three more by submission.